Okay, so the Senate has just passed the bailout bill Economic Rescue Plan 74-25.? The bill is a 451 page document, and contains pages and pages of stuff that are designed to put the most chronic insomniac to sleep in seconds.
Nevertheless, I actually tried reading through the bill today.? (It’s available here, if you are interested).?
The most interesting part of the bill, of course, is the provision on page 300.
SEC. 503. EXEMPTION FROM EXCISE TAX FOR CERTAIN WOODEN ARROWS DESIGNED FOR USE BY CHILDREN.
(a) IN GENERAL.?Paragraph (2) of section 4161(b) is amended by redesignating subparagraph (B) as sub301 paragraph (C) and by inserting after subparagraph (A) the following new subparagraph:
??(B) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN WOODEN ARROW SHAFTS.?Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to any shaft consisting of all natural wood with no laminations or artificial means of enhancing the spine of such shaft (whether sold separately or incorporated as part of a finished or unfinished product) of a type used in the manufacture of any arrow which after its assembly?
??(i) measures 5/16 of an inch or less in diameter, and
??(ii) is not suitable for use with a bow described in paragraph (1)(A).??.(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.?The amendments made by this section shall apply to shafts first sold after the date of enactment of this Act.
I am sure this is somehow related to solving the financial crisis, but can anyone tell me what the connection is? 
nittin
Sujatha
shyam
Anonymous
it’s a carrot. some congressman wants to skimp on a grandkid’s christmas present. anything to get the bill passed.
Lekhni: Poor grandkid, he has to make do with wooden arrows for Christmas while the money goes to bailout Wall Street
It is called an Easter Egg in the software paradigm. Just a code stub inserted at the most inappropriate place for the kicks of it. Type “about:mozilla” in the address bar if you are using firefox. Something like that.
Lekhni: I know a few Windows Easter eggs but didn’t know this Firefox one
OMG.. you actually read the whole document
!!! And i don’t know the arrow para is fit in the document for the kick of it as Aditya here mentions!! 
Lekhni: Well, I wade through hundreds of blog posts, what’s a few hundred pages of a bill ?
It is actually the Government’s way of joking: it shows you that you have been shafted. And no tax payer is exempt from this!
Lekhni: Yes, I guess the joke is on us
That is *some* find, Lekhni. Though I am disappointed there was no “meat-cleavers for little girls” provision in the document.
Lekhni: I suspect the House is planning to add that provision
Whoa! You read the entire thing??
Arrows? wooden? taxes? Bah! Lekhni, do not read such stuff while you’re watching Ramayana on TV! Read it again!
Lekhni: Yes, who plays with wooden arrows these days ?
Even the Ramayana (well, the Ramanand Sagar version I saw) had tinsel foil arrows that would magically disappear!
What the hell was that? Jigsaw puzzle?
Lekhni: No, wooden arrows…
http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/2008/10/curious-about-wooden-arrows-for.html
“My understanding is the bailout bill was attached to another bill for procedural reasons, and that that other bill had all the weird provisions (Senators weren’t trying to add them to the bailout bill specifically).”
Lekhni: Thanks for sharing that
That does clarify things a bit, but the wooden arrow provision is still weird 
The beneficiaries are apparently a few Oregon companies like Rose City Archery. (Thanks, Ranjith!)
I am not even gonna bother to think about the wooden arrows, but then you read that whole doc to find this thing? I have 850 unread items in my feed reader and all I get past is 50 on a work day.
kis chakki ka aata khate ho ji aap?
Lekhni: Two words – speed read! With feed readers especially, I am getting better and better at speed reading
Ha ha … I loved the one that Rambodoc said! It is a hidden message in the bill that if we pass this it is equivalent to what RDoc said! But seriously, you’ve got Himalayan size patience to read through 454 page doc, which I doubt even if everyone in the congress has gone through it or not!
Lekhni: The senators were counting on no one reading to page 300 too, I guess
This is simple politics at play. McCain was asked last evening why he voted for this bill which also had tons of pork-barrel spending attached. As usual, he kept repeating old lines of being a maverick and stuff. When push came to a shove, he shoved it aside
Lekhni: He sounded even more confused today, when he said he voted for the bill because it is “putting us on the brink of an economic disaster”. That’s why he voted for it?
Watch the YouTube clip 
You deserve kudos…and we find you are still awake!
Lekhni: I was sure I had nodded off and was dreaming when I read about the wooden arrows
Who is the Senator responsible for this arrow (shaft) earmark? He ought to be questioned regarding his patriotism. A list should be made of all Senators responsible for all added “sweeteners”.
Lekhni: This article says the provision was “originally proposed by Oregon senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith”.
This must have been the real point of contention. I see no other possible objection to bailing out a bunch of greedy idiots who have created the biggest mess since 1929. Long live free capitalism…
Lekhni: I have no problems with the bailout, as I have said in previous posts..
So the wooden arrow lobby is coming full force at a time when the real issue is the american citizen. I expect the bread crust lobby and the leather shoe sole lobby to jump in any minute with their hand out. Please, take your self interest out of the equation. We need conside and definitive repair of the corruption and graft industries so they can get back to making millions. Please, try to think of wall street.
Lekhni: That’s funny
JR is correct. I’ll have to double-check this, but from what I’ve read, a bill needs to be passed in the House first before a (similar) bill on the same issue can be introduced or passed in the Senate – or a rule along those lines. So, to put pressure on the Representatives in the House, the hand-out provisions were tacked on to an existing bill in the Senate and the bill passed, hence the wooden arrows.
Lekhni: Now I understand the technical issue that JR & Calculated Risk were talking about and why they had to attach it to an existing bill!
Of course, this still means the original bill, which probably was a bill on renewable energy, had the wooden arrows added as sweeteners
Ah, found it:
“Bills may originate in either the House of Representatives or the Senate with one notable exception provided for in the Constitution. Article I, Section 7, of the Constitution provides that all bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives but that the Senate may propose or concur with amendments.”
Lekhni: Got it.
Kudos on your reading efforts! Anyways, you might not oppose for the bail-out now, but the long-term repercussion’s are just around the corner. Wait and watch. Hoping for the opposite though.
http://wescribble.blogspot.com
Lekhni: Sigh. I know, bailout or no bailout, we are in for a bad time
Lekhni, beggars cannot be choosers.
You are critical of the sops in the bill, yet the hand-out is nothing more than a big pork which you were in favor of. You wanted the hand-out bill to pass quickly so that the sky doesn’t fall down, so why criticize some provisions that were already there? If the bill was passed in a day – the Senators obviously were more busy working out the details of the hand-out than trying to debate the merits of existing provisions in the bill. Everyone, including the Senators, have finite resources available to them in terms of time, no?
Lekhni: Absolutely, everyone has finite time available, and I can see some people would rather prioritize spending that time on wooden arrows instead of the financial crisis
Hmmm….which is worse – a pre-existing provision for wooden arrows in a bill, or a post handout celebration?